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Our Girl, Cathy - R.I.P.
National Review Online ^ | March 22, 2007 | Rob Long

Posted on 03/22/2007 2:44:13 PM PDT by neverdem







Our Girl, Cathy
R.I.P.

By Rob Long

These things take a while, I’m told, to sink in. Cathy Seipp, my longtime friend, had been fighting lung cancer for years. Most of that time, I told her, I sort of felt sorry for the cancer — Cathy marching around to doctor’s offices and chemotherapy sessions with no-nonsense purpose; Cathy explaining to a Blue Cross bureaucrat, with restrained irritation, that it made no sense for the insurer to suddenly declare, now that a certain type of chemotherapy was showing some success with her cancer, that it was “experimental” and therefore not covered — really, truly, it looked to most of us like maybe it wasn’t a fair fight. Cancer vs. Seipp? My money was on Seipp.

So when she died Wednesday — slipped away, really, peacefully in her sleep — I found myself going directly to her blog, as I often did, to find out what Cathy Seipp had to say about this new development. If she would shake it off, call it “ridiculous!,” ignore it, or start one of her hilarious, acid feuds with it. She was smart, funny, uncompromising, fantastically and epically cranky — all of these things and more.

But she was also a girl. She had wide eyes and one of those high foreheads that girls have in 1940s movies, and there was something immensely flattering to male vanity to talk to Cathy Seipp because she looked at you as if you were saying something important and interesting.

It was a trick, of course — she was a brilliant, sneaky reporter. Once, at lunch, I launched into some ill-considered tirade and looked up to see Cathy staring at me with delighted, wide eyes and a wonderful smile….and then I noticed her right hand, scribbling away, taking it all down, without ever breaking eye contact with me.

But it also wasn’t a trick. A few months ago, two of her oldest friends and I sat down behind her back to have a What-Should-We-Do-About-Cathy? dinner. The three of us were concerned that as her health condition worsened, she’d be burdened with worry — financial, parental, all of it — and we met to figure it out. How much money did she have? How much money did she need? Could we hire her a home nurse? Did her daughter need a car? What can we do to make things easier for her? But how to broach the topic with such a famously prickly, cautious, organized, self-sufficient person? Which one of us was bold enough or stupid enough even to try?

None of us, but I did it. I was blunt: The three of us guys, I told her, have been talking. I laid out our concerns. I offered our offers. She smiled, laughed, told me that were we sweet, thanked us, and promised to call if she needed anything. I knew then that we’d figured her all wrong: She wasn’t such a tough bird after all. Well, she was, but she also knew that one of the things that men feel compelled to do is to take care of the women in their lives, and she liked that. She was a girl.

On Friday, I visited her in the hospital. We had plans to meet at her house, have me drive her to do a few errands, and then sit somewhere for lunch. But Thursday night she was more short of breath and in more pain than usual, so she spent the night in the hospital, and I saw her there. She was in typical spirits, though more frail than I expected. I brought tea and pastries and lots of magazines, and we sat there for a few hours, sharing malicious gossip, talking about hospital food, while I watched Cathy methodically rip out the ads from Vogue and Vanity Fair. “I’m not going to be lugging these huge things around,” she said. “Seriously. They make these magazines so heavy. Life is too short.”

Too short doesn’t begin to describe it. I go to her website. I look at her picture. I hit refresh.

These things take a while, I’m told, to sink in.



TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cathyseipp; rip; wonderful

1 posted on 03/22/2007 2:44:14 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

"These things take a while, I’m told, to sink in."

Yep.


2 posted on 03/22/2007 2:51:00 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: neverdem

Prayers for God's Blessing on her.


3 posted on 03/22/2007 2:52:51 PM PDT by ex-snook ("But above all things, truth beareth away the victory.")
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To: neverdem

Rest in peace

4 posted on 03/22/2007 2:58:12 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: neverdem

She was a class act.

Sharp, witty and could come up with the most clever lines.

May she rest in peace.


5 posted on 03/22/2007 2:59:02 PM PDT by JRochelle (RudymccaINrOmney)
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To: neverdem

Here is an old post of hers that sheds some more light on what happened to her. She died of Lung cancer, but never smoked.


"•And a link from LAObserved when Cathy revealed on her blog that she had lung cancer (of course, joking when people asked her if she had breast cancer, "I wish!"):

Because sure, breast cancer is no fun; I’ve had friends who’ve died of it. But it also has a survival rate of around 85%. That’s the unsurvival rate of lung cancer, which is what I have. I’m actually lucky still to be alive, given that I was diagnosed almost three and a half years ago, after a cough that wouldn’t go away, and most lung cancer patients don’t make it past two years. Except that, since I never smoked even one cigarette, never lived or worked with smokers, and in fact have zero family history and no other risk factors at all (unusual even in people who don’t get cancer), the bald truth is I’m pretty unlucky to have this in the first place."

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2007/03/cathy_seipp_2.html


6 posted on 03/22/2007 3:09:43 PM PDT by Revel
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To: neverdem
Her blog: Cathy's World
7 posted on 03/22/2007 3:16:35 PM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: neverdem
Cathy's blog was one of my daily reads. My heart is breaking for her darling Maia, 18 is a brutal age to lose a parent (heck, for me 25 and 37 were no fun either) My prayers go out to her.

We lost a good one.

8 posted on 03/22/2007 3:22:43 PM PDT by RepoGirl ("Tom, I'm getting dead from you, but I'm not getting Un-dead..." -- Frasier Crane)
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To: neverdem

My prayers go out to Cathy and her circle of Family and Friends. Cancer affects all who know the sufferer. I an in the midst of my 5th battle with this little speed bump in life. Cathy sounds like the type of person who would never consider herself a victim. We are combatants in a war and we fight every battle with a will to live and not give in. We try to share our conviction that we will win the war, keep other’s spirits up, and show strength.

I’ve had a couple of close calls and I’ve seen the sadness in others when things went rough. I refuse to wallow in their concern and I tell them that I will fight and they should be my reserves. It has worked for the past 4+ years and one funny thing is that with all of the tests; Blood Pressure, cholesterol, heart disease, lymph node monitoring (cancer hasn’t hit the blood or lymph nodes) and every other CT, PET scan and anything they can think of, except for the cancer I am one healthy son-of-gun.

I am a kindred spirit with Cathy and I will say a special prayer for her passing. I see her as a fallen warrior in our own little war.

God speed, Cathy.


9 posted on 03/22/2007 3:23:32 PM PDT by noname07718
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To: neverdem

What a sweet article. She was blessed with good friends.


10 posted on 03/22/2007 3:38:26 PM PDT by ClancyJ
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To: noname07718

"I see her as a fallen warrior in our own little war."

I don't see it as a little war-- it feels rather huge to me. I lost my mom at 16 and my dad at 33. Sometimes I feel very shell-shocked, even to this day.

Cancer is my godammned enemy-- moreso even than the damned towelheads.

Never read this poor lady's blog, but will check in on it.


11 posted on 03/22/2007 3:44:21 PM PDT by agooga (When boyhood's fire was in my blood, I read of ancient free men...)
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To: neverdem

i'm ashamed to say i didn't know who she was but i hear good things-what a shame-so many evil people continue to hang around-may she rst in peace


12 posted on 03/22/2007 4:25:08 PM PDT by steamroller
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To: neverdem

btt


13 posted on 03/22/2007 8:24:34 PM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: neverdem
Susan Estrich actually wrote a nice piece about her.
14 posted on 03/23/2007 3:32:12 AM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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